MLive.com political columnist Susan J. Demas last week interviewed
former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former first gentleman Dan Mulhern
about their new book, A Governor's Story: The Fight For Jobs and America's Economic Future. Parts of the interview will be running on the MLive.com Politics page this week.

AP File PhotoJennifer Granholm

The animosity between former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop is well-established. And now Granholm has rehashed it with some colorful commentary in her new book, A Governor's Story.

Over the years, I've talked with both leaders about their troubled relationship, as well as several people around them, because it helped catapult Michigan into two government shutdowns, huge budget cuts and a tax increase.

Liking each other personally doesn't necessarily mean political disaster will be averted (witness the rocky "bromance," as even Granholm refers to it in her book, between Bishop and former Speaker Andy Dillon). But it certainly doesn't help.

Mike Bishop

In an interview last week, I asked Granholm and Dan Mulhern if they had any empathy for the position Bishop was in back in 2007. After all, he felt he was fighting the good fight against a tax increase, something his conservative constitution just couldn't stomach.

The short answer is no. But the long answer -- especially from Mulhern, who is often thought of in Lansing as being somewhat touchy-feely -- is fascinating. Frankly, I think the question offended him.

Granholm answered first.

"Empathy? I . . . uh, did
at the beginning. I did at the beginning," she said. "But I can say that his strategy of
seeking unanimity in his caucus before he would agree to anything and having
him held hostage to the most extreme elements of his caucus was not good
leadership."

Mulhern the responded then at length:

"Empathy to me is an odd
word in this case, Susan. Because he took by his own words -- he said this
afterwards: "'Obstructionism' is not a bad word." He was ready to
throw himself across the tracks. So he has consciously, explicitly told us all,
in retrospect, what his strategy was.

"So empathy is a weird word.
I mean, this is an extreme -- I think -- extreme in the sense that that you're
willing to shut down the government over it. And it's not a stretch to say
pretend to negotiate knowing full well that you're going to throw your body
across the tracks. I think the governor and Andy Dillon would both say they
believed he was negotiating, at times, in good faith. But by his own words, in
retrospect, it looks like he was going to shut down (the government) the whole
time. So do you empathize with someone who takes an extreme position? I don't.
I mean, he's taking an intense, extreme, personal, political position.

Granholm tried to break in
unsuccessfully. Mulhern continued:

"That's a personal choice
he makes. Do you empathize with that? No. Now do you see -- excuse me, Jen --
do you see that there is some basis for his position? Yes. I'm speaking for
myself. I mean, I respect that there's an ideological position that there
should be absolutely no tax increases. I personally think that it's a very,
very foolish position and that no businessperson would say in a parallel sense, 'I will not raise my prices on any product. I will only cut costs. I will
not try to find new sources of revenue.'

"No businessperson would have
said that they would not tax rental cars that were being rented by people from
another state. I mean, it was just absolutely inane. It was foolish. Is there a
sense in tightening things up? Yes. But is there sense in the extreme,
illogical position that is now being completely mirrored in Washington where
every presidential Republican candidate offered a deal, hypothetically, of 10
parts tax cut and one part revenue -- that they would never sign onto that. No
businessperson would accept that. In the business world, that's ridiculous. Now
that might be staking out a position -- I get that. I get that we need
austerity. But that's really not the issue. We've got to negotiate some real
issues.

"Mike Bishop held off the
state and people were in crisis. And by doing what he did -- creating a deal
that Jennifer would have accepted in February, March, April, June and July and
closing down the state -- what did he do? He hurt people's confidence in the
state, both Republicans and Democrats. He hurt people's confidence in
government, made the situation worse. Instead of tackling the problem early on,
you had to make the cuts and everything else more intense later on.